Star Wars Episode VII Rumor Roundup

Star Wars: VII got its official subtitle last week, say hi to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Unfortunately, this title does very little in revealing or confirming any major story details. Regardless, there are one or two rumors that have begun to float to the top as the most likely.

It is said that The Force Awakens will take place approximately 30 years after Return of the Jedi. The battle since then has not been an easy one. The empire did not simply fall with the Emperor but instead drew out their fall into a long and bloody conflict.

To start off, it is pretty likely that the film will take place on Tatooine for a bit. From the Star Wars charity segments, we see J.J. Abrams against a desert city backdrop that looks a lot like Tatooine.

The plot is rumored to focus on a young junk scavenger rumored to be named Kira (Daisy Ridley) and a currently nameless Storm Trooper (John Boyega), will call him Troop for now. It seems Kira will rescue Troop after he crash lands near her home, which is possibly an abandoned AT-AT, awesome I know.

Kira somehow comes into possession of strange object, a lightsaber. Exactly how is still unclear, some sources say an alien brings it to her and other’s say she comes across it in a severed hand. After bringing it to an old cyborg (Max Von Sydow), who is old enough to have been present during the clone wars. He recognizes it as a Jedi’s signature weapon and sends them both to some old friends who might be able to help. Rumors are divisive at best as to the cyborg’s allegiances. It is unclear so far what side he fought on and what his intentions are now. Regardless, his actions will most likely somehow point Kira and Trooper towards Han Solo.

Enter Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) who might be a little worse for wear. Rumors about these two state that they no longer own the Millenium Falcon which Oscar Isaac now has. No worries though, we know from leaked set photos that the Millenium Falcon will make an appearance. Han either recognizes it as Luke’s old lightsaber or knows that Luke is the only one that can shed some light. Regardless, this encourages the group to seek out Luke.

Here we here about Luke’s fate since the fall of the empire. Rumors are scarce about what Luke’s story arc will involve but there are a few points that are agreed upon. Rumors state that he will be missing at the start of the film. How long is a little unclear but however long it is, he has been gone long enough that his friends stopped looking for him. The folks over at Making Star Wars state that they have information from people closely involved with the movie about Luke’s arc. I will highlight the main points from their breakdown.

Luke will have unlocked or discovered some kind of Force power that has elevated him to the next level. He is worried about holding so much power and is worried that he will become corrupted by it. This is why he went into his self-imposed exile, to be away from conflicts that would cause too much temptation to use his newfound power. His exile has essentially driven him slightly mad, giving us a more frightening version of Luke than we have seen before.

It seems most rumors agree that we will see Luke back in action towards the end of the film. The new villain and hero will have a showdown which will bring Luke back into action. However, it seems that by the end of the movie we will know whether Luke will give into his madness by joining the dark side or remaining a Jedi.

This villain is still unconfirmed but most rumors point to Troop’s commanding officer (Gwendoline Christie) being connected to the Inquisitors. A group of force users who were recruited by the Sith to hunt down the Jedi. These Inquisitors are so far rumored to be the primary antagonists of Episode VII and the new face of the dark side.

Other little rumor tidbits involve a Darth Vader flashback showing him recruiting the first Inquisitor. Han Solo and Chewbacca sans a Millenium Falcon are now in charge of an old Star Destroyer. Han and Leia’s children Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin being introduced.

From some supposedly leaked concept art, there are few other points of interest. The final showdown will happen between Kira and a cyborg antagonist on an ice planet, possibly Hoth.

The other bits of concept art show locales and ships that don’t give much newer information from what’s given above. There are also various other rumors about another Empire super weapon, the Darth Vader flashback involving Leia,

However Episode VII turns out, it looks like J.J. Abrams is going in the right direction by revisiting the original trilogy locales, the core cast, and directly building off of the original trilogy events.